Andrew O’Connor warned Ginny that storms were brewing. See, she had swirled the church into turmoil by fostering Blue’s case against them. Would the church accept the implications or would they strike back? Andrew’s legal experience in these matters hinted, “Look out!”
One day returning from a workout she found tabloids mirroring her old life back at her. Ginny, on a National Enquirer?! Back at her house, she read over the details of a storm. What’s up with the news-anchor and the 14-year-old? Legit or salacious?
That storm swirled all the way to sister-Becky in California and Blue was the eyewitness to ensuing sisterly sparks. Pushed over the edge he quietly fled. Not having let on Ginny found lumps under Blue’s covers the next morning to be pillows, not an oversleeping teenager. Chapter 18 blows the covers off a lot of other mysteries, but most poignant was Blue’s flight. Charlene had long ago foretold this.
Why does Blue do this? Can he not just embrace all that Ginny has done for him? Shouldn’t he just jump into that goodness and let it be? Thing is we know Ginny’s motives, and all that Blue has done for her, but Blue does not. At least not yet. Another part of this is the milieu in which Blue came to where he is. Abandonment marked that. He usual was to have responsible people pushed him right out of their lives. Taking a lesson from that lifebook, his footprints plodded right out and away from Ginny and Andrew. He could not tolerate the connection between love and pain and so opted out.
The same thing which had intertwined this triplet made Andrew and Ginny come together for a Blue-hunt. While scouring the city for Blue, Andrew opened up to Ginny about his background pointing out that her efforts to restore Blue had been helping to heal some of Andrew’s old wounds. Someday the consistency of Ginny will be a voice in Blue’s head louder than Ted’s. That was very important.
Maturity: a diamond with several faces
Life has many facets which lead to maturity. Ginny, Andrew, and Blue are all facing different pieces of that diamond. Blue must grant that other’s are willing to suffer on his behalf. What Blue has not known was that his presence in Ginny’s life had healed her as well. It was not all one-sided. Eventually, he came to know that.
Before I close this entry out, I want to write a thing about the rawness of language scattered about the chapter’s rough edges. The 18th chapter is king of the bad words, and for some, this will boil briskly casting a stern glance over the book. For others, the language will register as nothing more than part and parcel of the passions that exploded in this chapter.
Do I stand with those who boil or those who say, “It’s real!”? One part of me wants to yell, “Those words aren’t needed!” Another less loud albeit still bold part of me says, “Look past it!”
Having just completed Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath a scene comes to mind when I think language makes Blue burnable. That scene is the judgmental, Christian bunch at the Weedpatch dance which sitting but running their scowls like flags up a pole. Now I want to tread carefully lest I, too, be a scowler. Probably some “agree-to-disagree” should be spread over chapters that spray a bunch of unpleasant words into an unpleasant situation.
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